Highway guard fence



Sept. 22, 1931. w. E. WHITE 1,824,454

HIGHWAY GUARD FENCE Filed March 26, 1931 Q Q i Patented Sept. 22, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE- WILLIAM E. WHITE, OI ATLANTA, QEORGIA, ABSIGH'OR '1'0 WOOD PRESERV- ING COMPANY, OF ATLANTA, GEORGIA, A COBPORATION OF GEORGIA HIGHWAY GUARD raiser:

Application ma larch 28.1981. Serial No. 525,529.

automobiles or other vehicles may slide and adapted to be painted a bright color to guide or warn motorists. The idea is to provide a relatively cheap and very durable safety,

fence of this type in which all of the timbers are treated with creosote or an equivalent reservative so as to make the wood last' as ong, if not longer, than ordinary steel guards. 1

Other aims and advantages of the invention will appear in the specification, when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings,'wherein Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a portion of a safety fence or guard embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary side elevation showing one section of the ard; and Fi 3 is a transverse sectional view showing t e hub of an automobile wheel contacting with the inside of a guard rail.

Experience has demonstrated that ordinary road guards or fences made of unso treated wood are unsafe because they soon rot. Moreover, the cost of upkeep, including paint and repairs is relatively high. Creosoted lumber or timber has not een used "extensively to make permanent uards because the creosote makes the woo dark and the guard rails are not readily visible at night. Further, wooden guard rails, whether or not they are treated, ofi'er considerable resistance to sliding movement of automobile hubs or wheels when the wheels strike them at an angle. In many-instances, the hubs or wheel rims dig into the wood causing the car to stop more or less suddenly and turn over. Also, the force of the impact is sometimes sufiiciently great to wreck the fence. For these reasons, expensive structural steel and expanded metal guards have been used extensively. But all steel guards soon rust and have to be painted, making the initial and upkeep costs almost prohibifoot, whic ably plates are overlapped at the joints of the fie; Ordinarily, they are not any more permanent than properly, creosoted timber. Th1s invention t erefore aims to overcome the foregoing objections to wood to make them safer than the stee ards.

Referring. particularl 'to the awin the safety ence, there s own, is made 0 a relatively dense wood, such as southern pine, treated with-creosote. To obtain the best results,suchwood or timber is treated with about 16 ounds of creosote to the cubic is applied under hi h pressure so as to penetrate the pores of the wood throughout. All of the-timbers are preferrst cutto'the desired shape or size before they are treated.

The safety fence is here shown as coniprising a'series of posts 10 well anchored in the ground at the edge of a roadway or outsidevof the shoulder of a pavement. These osts are ordinarily arranged from 8 to 10 eet apart around curves so as to afford adequate support for a longitudinal guard rail 11, also made of relatively heavy creosoted timber. The guard rail 11 is composed of longitudinal sections secured on the insides of the posts at the same height as the hubs" of ordinary automobiles. The width of the rail is preferably about 8 inches and the thickness about 4 inches. The end sections of'the fence and some of the intermediate sections are vbraced by means of ordinary diagonal braces 12 between the posts.

In accordance with this invention, sheet metal plates 13 are secured to the inner face of the guard rail 11 to afford a smooth surface on which the hubs of automobiles 'may' easily slide. 16 gauge, sheet "steel strips of the same Width as the guard rail are suitable for this purpose. The strips are shown as being slightly longer than the sections of the guard rail 11 and they are secured to the rail as the fence is being assembled. Referring to Fig. 1, it will be noted that the ards and guard rail in the direction of the trafiic, which is indicated by an arrow. The end of each plate overlaps the joint and they overlap each other, thereby strengthening the jo nt. This avoids any obstruction to I a hub or wheel which strikes and slides along the guard rail. The plates are conveniently secured intermediate their ends to the sections of the guard rail 11 by means of flat-headed, galvanized bolts 14. Furthermore, their overlapped ends and the abutting ends of the guard rail sections are secured to the posts 10 by means of long galvanizedbolts 15, thus avoiding the necessity of securing the plates separately to the guard rail.

The provision of the sheet metal plates on the inner face of the guard rail is not only advantageous from the standpoint of providing a sliding surface for the hubs of automoblles, but also provides a surface which is shown as being painted a bri ht color so that it is easily visible by motorists and denotes the direction of any curve. plates are preferably first coated with red lead and then painted white, although they may be painted with so-called aluminum aint. However, the red lead prevents rust and the white paint will stick to it.

From the foregoing description, it will be seen that the thin sheet metal plates provide a hard sliding surface for the hubs of automobiles to strike and prevents the wheels fromscouring into the timber. Moreover, the. timber is sufiiciently yieldable to absorb any hard shocks and thereby prevents serious damage which might occur if the entire fence were composed of structural steel. The creosote on the surface of the side rails will prevent rust of the inner surface of the guide plates. Furthermore, such safety fences can be built at a fraction of the cost of all steel guards and the combination of the treated timbers with the sheet metal plates makes the safety fence more durable. Due to the resiliency of the wood and the fact that the guard rail supports the sheet metal, preventing it from sagging, the improved guard is much safer than all-metal guards. The arrangement of the guard rail also prevents automobile wheels from striking the posts.

Obviously, the present invention is not restricted to the particular embodiment thereof herein shown and described.

What I claim is 1. In combination with a safety fence for highways having a plurality of wooden posts at the edge of' the highway and a wooden guard rail on the insides of the posts, sheet metal strips secured to the inner face of the uard rail and overlapped in the direction 0 the trafiic at the joints between the guard rail sections and the posts; and means securing both the guard rail and the overlapped portions of the strips to the posts.

2. In combination with a highway safety fence having a wooden guard rail secured to posts at such height as to deflect the The wheels of motor vehicles,'a bri htened sheet metal facing on the inside 0 vthe rail to provide a relatively smooth and readily visible sliding surface to deflect the hubs of vehicles and being sufficiently yieldable to ture.

WILLIAM E. WHITE. 

